Tag Archives: realm

The imaginal realm, the realm of sleep dreams, day-dreams and our conscious attempts to enter that realm, mean that it is a powerful place of energy and transformation. It is within and without!

We looked recently at creating a Focus Table for our ritual, but aswell as a focal point it could be seen as an ‘energy enhancer’, a place were we really appreciate the benefits of intentionality.

One way of using both the imaginal realm and that Focus Table, was in the recent spiritual exercise. It was an outline entry into the imaginal realm, a sort of Imaginal Realm 101, but, nevertheless, a profound and beneficial one, and I’d encourage you to try the exercise. It may be best to read and re-read the exercise so that you can do this alone and are familiar with the words. It easier if someone is narrating and guiding you – and this is where I work one-to-one with clients, even via the internet – but do try it by yourself.

‘A Word For The Week’ Spiritual Exercise

Sitting in a room, make yourself comfortable and ensure that you won’t be disturbed for this five minute exercise. Close you eyes, breath deeply, slowly, and imagine.

Imagine that there is a new door in one of the walls of the room, and its ajar. In your mind’s eye, imagine yourself walking towards it (even though, physically, you are still sitting on that chair in your room). And so, you walk towards the door, open it wider and walk through it.

You see a staircase in from of you, going up, with red carpet on it. There’s wood panelling on the walls, and as you climb the stairs you smell a mustiness in the air of old books. A different smell, but not entirely unpleasant.

You get to the top of the stairs, and peer through glass doors, at an old library – the kind that has bookshelves almost to the ceiling and which need a ladder for the uppermost books. You pull on one of the door handles and enter the library – The Great Library.

In your heart your intention is to find a book that will give you a ‘word for the week; in its title, on the book’s spine. As you look around, one book grabs your attention. You take it off the shelf, inspect the spine, and there – there is your word for the week.

You put the book back on its shelf, turn and pull on the door handle, and go through the library stairs. Walking down slowly, you notice the door to your room coming ever closer. You go through that door, and sit in the chair, exactly where you started.

Now you can open your eyes. The exercise is almost over, but to ensure you adequately ‘ground’ yourself (back) in the physical reality I’d suggest you give yourself a round of applause, as any kind of physical action acts as a good grounding ‘mechanism’.

Now, the word! What was your word?

If you have a word that you would like to share do email me. If you know the relevance of the word, and wish to share that too, please do so. If you’re not sure about the word’s meaning, I’ll certainly work with you if you email me, as ‘unpacking’ the results of what happens in that imaginal realm is also part of the work I undertake.

Ofcourse, in one to one sessions, similar to the abovementioned, clients have visited ‘the power station’ for physical or spiritual energy; the ‘field of dreams’ to ‘solidify’ their aims and hopes relating to work, moving location or some other significant decision; the hall of cledon’ for a one-word decisive answer; or a myriad of characters, helpers and allies. In one-to-one sessions, online with Tadhg, where would you like to visit, inwardly in that realm, who would you like to meet?

The interesting thing about the imaginal realm, also, is that is can also be the realm in which to do imaginal rituals as well as doing similar rituals in the physical world.

What is ritual? Here’s an anecdote to explain it.

‘And so, the person standing twenty feet in front of the crowd, stretched out one arm, and with something like a hiking pole in his hand, etched a circle in the soil as he turned in a clockwise manner. The group knew the significance of it. A person said to me, ‘It’s symbolic. Within that circle is sacred space, sacred time, and that’s different from mundane time. Well, It’s time to step into the circle. Ofcourse when you do step into that circle, and later step out, just remember that, as you do so, everything is really sacred. But for now, we do the ritual to help us focus on what’s necessary at this time’’

It has been said that ritual is mumbo jumbo, powerless and done to appease some angry god or the random forces of nature. But this this misses the point wonderfully.

Ritual has power, and is effective, and beneficial.

With clear and concise words and symbolic actions I can say something out loud, and in saying it out loud it seems to clarify my thinking. In doing some symbolic action, ritual, it gives me some kind of peace. I may say ‘bless you’ if you sneeze’, or I may throw a pinch of salt over my shoulder each time I use it, but it’s not mumbo jumbo. It helps me, even if it means I smile when I throw that salt over my shoulder.

Powerless? Not usually. The exchange of rings in a wedding ceremony, the drawing together of the curtains at a crematoria chapel, the lifting up a glass to toast someone contains some form of meaning, and therefore some form of power.

And who is it for? Well, however we see the animating force of the universe, it seems to me that the Universe needs no single human on a planet of eight billion to do anything for it/him/her. But, we get something out of it. The Universe doesn’t need it, but I do believe the Universe may encourage us as it sees us using positive words and actions for the benefit of all sentient beings, and for creation itself.

It’s as if the Universe is a master painter, a classical painter, and its work is creation. And, then the Universe says to us, ‘Here. Here’s the brush and palette, and there is a little corner down there that I’d like you to finish off, and make this masterpiece complete. Perhaps, that is ritual?

Ritual then, can be an individual activity in the physical realm or a group event, but it can also be something that you do in the imaginal realm – infact, utilising the imaginal realm in the way can enhance your ritual. In this way we can undertake rituals for a number of reasons – one which as suggested recently as a spiritual exercise was to use or focus table to send good energy, light and love and healing to all those affected by the coronavirus. This could be a ‘purely’ physical ritual, but I’d like to suggest that you do that as a start, but spend some time going inward, always ensuring you ‘ground’ yourself after with some kind of physical action (ie applause etc).

There’s much more to say about ritual in all realms, and the one-to-one work I undertake, and this will feature in articles and in the Thought For The Day over the next week or two, as well as appearing on a slightly revamped blog, here, to outline one-to-one services etc.